


Grounding

by anxious_logic



Series: Soulmate September 2020 [9]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi, despite the summary maybe making it sound like that, i promise this isnt sexual, im tired and bad at summaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26399611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxious_logic/pseuds/anxious_logic
Summary: Roman has a bad day. His soulmates help him with a new grounding technique.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton
Series: Soulmate September 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907686
Comments: 6
Kudos: 79





	Grounding

**Author's Note:**

> Soulmate September Day 9: When you write something on your own skin it appears on your soulmate’s skin as well.
> 
> Yeah, this is a day late... whoops. I already have Day 11 written, so I'll try to get caught up tomorrow. No promises, though.
> 
> Warnings: Slight mentions of homophobia and polyphobia. Let me know if there's anything else I should add!

Roman smiled as he felt a slight tingling on his thigh. He couldn’t look, as he was in class and taking your pants off to check a message was usually considered inappropriate, but it was still nice to know that he was being thought of.

Or maybe one of the others had just dropped their pen and accidentally drew all over themselves.

Honestly, Roman didn’t really care. He’d been getting relatively coherent messages from Logan since he was four, and his parents would help him read them. (That was one of the biggest pushes he had gotten to learn how to read – being able to read his soulmate’s messages by himself.) At first, Patton could only participate by scribbling with a pen or splattering paint on his body, but eventually he learned how to write, too. Virgil mostly participated with doodles, his talent growing from smiley faces and hearts to rudimentary animals to incredibly lifelike scenes.

Roman hadn’t been able to write to his soulmates for much longer than he would have liked. His town was relatively conservative, and of the opinion that everyone should only have one soulmate of the opposite gender, and therefore he was generally discouraged from communicating with his three soulmates that were distinctly not female. But once he had gotten into third or fourth grade, and decided that he really didn’t care what these other people felt about it, because these three boys seemed really nice and he just wanted some friends, for once.

Yes, he knew it was sad. No, he didn’t want to talk about it.

He had met Patton in high school – the other boy had just moved to town and was in the same homeroom as him. Roman had noticed the cute boy doodling on his skin in the seat in front of him, felt the tingling on his arm, and had immediately terrified the other boy by poking him in the back and very seriously demanding that “you will marry me someday.”

Yeah, not really the best introduction to a soulmate, now that he thought about it. Sue him, it was high school and hormones and stress and nobody was supposed to be suave in high school no matter what the TV shows said, okay?

They’d started dating that month. They’d stayed together the rest of high school, had applied to all of the same colleges, and had requested a dorm room together.

When they arrived on campus, he learned that he would be in a quad with Patton and two other men. When they met, the first thing any of them saw was the galaxy on the back of their hand, courtesy of Virgil.

They were all soulmates.

It had been a little awkward at first – Patton and Roman had been dating for four years, while they had only just met Logan and Virgil; the other two had only just met each other that day, and they were all soulmates. And they were all living together. They’d had had to negotiate a bit, in order for everyone to be comfortable; setting boundaries and expectations and “text us if”s and “just don’t do that”s.

But eventually, they’d gotten it all figured out.

Now, they’d been dating for about a year and a half. They were still all rooming together, which sometimes did get rather tense, but it was also useful for quickly resolving any issues or miscommunications. It was… nice. Not exactly standard, maybe, but definitely… nice.

“Okay, I’ll put the readings for this weekend up on the online course,” the professor said, interrupting Roman’s thoughts. “It’s not too much – only about fifty pages or so. Then I want you to write a five-page paper on one of the common themes in the readings and how it connects to what we’ve been talking about, that’ll be due in a week…”

Roman felt his pulse go up slightly. Fifty pages, that was- a lot. And then a five-page paper, even double spaced that felt like a lot of working and planning and time…

He felt his breath speed up and pulled a pen out of his back pocket as he swung his backpack over his shoulder.

_Are any of you free I want to talk for a bit_

He capped the pen and put it back in his pocket, trying to regulate his breathing. It’d be okay. Yep. He’d be fine. Just- he’d maybe have to skip the theatre club tonight, do some reading then. Maybe he could wake up early over the weekend to plan and write the first draft of the essay?

God, this was a lot.

He headed to his dorm, slightly surprised to see that all three of his soulmates were sitting on his bed, talking quietly. Patton looked up, and when he saw the look on Roman’s face, his expression crumpled.

“Oh, honey, it’ll be okay, c’mere, lemme give you a hug.”

Roman did so. Even though his chin was resting on Patton’s head, he still felt incredibly protected and warm, his hug doing wonders for his anxiety.

“What’s up?” Virgil asked when Patton let go of Roman’s waist, leading him onto the bed. Roman shrugged helplessly.

“I just- got a lot sprung on me for this class. Wasn’t expecting it, and now I might have to miss a few things over the next few days to get it done. Not the end of the world, but I’d rather I didn’t have to.”

Logan frowned. “How much is ‘a lot’? You haven’t ever had trouble with readings or essays before.”

Roman reached over to grab Logan’s hand. “About fifty pages before Tuesday. And a five-page essay before next Thursday.” He felt his breathing pick up a little again.

Virgil winced. “That… that really sucks, Roman. I’m sorry.”

Logan studied him closely. “Do you have anything incredibly urgent to do right now?”

Roman looked down. “I mean, I have a lot of work, but… I guess it can wait.”

Logan nodded decisively. “I have a bit of a grounding exercise that I’ve been wanting to try for a bit. Would you be open to trying it?” He paused, and blushed ever so slightly. “It would involve… undressing. Slightly. Just taking off the shirt.”

Virgil looked at him keenly, but didn’t comment, just glancing at Roman for a decision.

“Up to you,” Patton whispered, squeezing his hand.

Roman took a deep breath. “I… okay, yeah. Sure.”

He reached to take off his shirt, surprised when Logan did the same. Logan turned to their other two soulmates as well.

“It could be more beneficial when both of you participate as well. It involves utilizing the soulbond.”

Virgil sighed, but did so. Patton also took off his shirt, unceremoniously tossing it on the floor.

“Now, Virgil- could you get pens, for each of us?”

Virgil looked confused, but got up to dig through his pen container. He emerged with four pens – purple shimmer, dark blue, light blue, and red glitter. He handed the pens to the other three.

“Now. I want you to draw something, anything, on yourself, anywhere all of us can reach.”

Virgil frowned, but drew a circle on his right shoulder. Roman shivered slightly as he felt the tingling on his skin.

“Patton, can you connect something else to that, please?”

Patton smiled widely, evidently understanding what Logan was saying more than Roman. He drew lines of different lengths, branching out from the circle like the rays of a sun.

Logan smiled slightly. “Wonderful. Now I’m going to add on…” he trailed off, as he added zig zags within the circle. He looked up to Roman.

“Your turn.”

Roman twisted slightly to see the design on his shoulder, a combination of his loves. He connected Patton’s rays, turning the shape into something more resembling a flower or a star.

“And now we begin again.”

Now the drawing was happening much faster; dots, zig zags, lines, waves, loops, curls, all tingling and making Roman focus on the feeling of warmth that seemed to be coming through their bond. It really did help to ground him and calm him down.

As they began to run out of skin that they could easily draw on, their movements started to slow. Roman looked around the room at his four soulmates, catching his breath at the designs and patterns decorating their upper bodies and arms.

“I love you,” he said, carefully gathering them all to himself. “I love you, so much.”

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment/kudos if you liked this?
> 
> I'm also on tumblr @anxious-logic!


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